Backlash Tender Trap Aftermath - Lisa Jackson Page 0,2

fence.

“Stop! Denver, no!” Tessa cried, stricken as her sweaty mare slid to a halt near the gate. She leaped onto, then over, the top rail of the fence. Her eyes were glued to Denver as he raced, shouldering his way through useless ranch hands toward the stables. “Somebody stop him! Denver!”

Smoke burned her lungs and her eyes stung as she followed, stumbling forward. Somewhere in the distance she heard the wail of sirens. “Denver!”

“You can’t go in there,” her brother, Mitchell, commanded. He seemed to come from nowhere through the smoke.

“Like hell.”

“Precisely.” His gaunt face was streaked with soot, his hair grimy, his eyes red as he stared at the inferno. Hot, crackling flames knifed through charred shingles in the sagging roof. “Just like hell.”

“Denver’s in there!” she cried, still heading across the yard. But Mitchell had no trouble keeping up with her, taking one swift stride to her two.

“Listen to me, Tessa,” he yelled over the roar of the fire, the shouts of men and the screams of terrified animals. “You can’t—”

“I have to!” She was running now, only a few yards from the stables. Mitchell tackled her, his momentum pushing her to the ground. Her chin bounced on gravel, but she didn’t care. She had to get to Denver.

“Damn it, Tessa,” Mitchell’s voice hissed urgently in her ear, “most of the McLean family’s already trapped in there!”

“No!”

“When the fire broke out, Katharine and Robert tried to help save the animals and the ranch records stored in the office.”

Struggling to a sitting position, Tessa clamped a trembling hand over her mouth and shook her head, staring at the burning building. Originally two stories, the stable had an upper floor used for storage and an office. The horses, the pride of the McLean Ranch, had been boxed in stalls on the ground level. Tessa thought she would retch.

“The fire department will be here soon,” Mitchell said, his voice rough from the smoke, his strong arms holding her back. “There’s nothing anyone can do until they get here.”

“We can’t just sit here and watch them burn!” she choked out, feeling helpless.

Sirens screamed nearby and heavy tires crunched on the gravel. Red and white lights flashed through the smoke. A paramedic van ground to a stop, followed by a red car from the fire department. Three huge, rumbling trucks roared behind.

The fire chief threw open the door of his car and shoved a bullhorn to his mouth. “Everybody get back!” he ordered, his eyes searching the grounds as he waved to the driver of the pumper truck. “There’s a lake around behind!” The truck tore around the main house to the large pond now reflecting scarlet. Firemen jumped from the trucks, dragging heavy canvas hoses toward the stables. “I want that barn contained and the surrounding buildings covered. We can’t trust the wind today.”

Water began jetting from the hoses, arcing high in the air before spraying over the burning building, sizzling as the first jets hit scorched timbers.

Tessa broke away from her brother and ran to the chief, Mitchell on her heels. “You’ve got to save them!” Tessa cried over the deafening cacophony of pumps, screams, the roar of the fire and her own, hammering heart.

“The horses, or—?”

“The McLeans are in there,” Mitchell clarified, yanking a thumb toward the stables. “They might be upstairs in the office or on the ground floor. They were trying to save the stock—”

“Christ!” the chief swore. “How many?”

“Five—no, four. Denver and his parents, Robert and Katharine. And ... and Dad, Curtis Kramer, the ranch foreman.”

“Dad, too?” Tessa whispered hoarsely.

“That’s it?” the chief demanded, his tired eyes narrowing on Mitchell. “What about John McLean and the other McLean son—what’s his name?”

“Colton,” Tessa murmured, thinking of Denver’s younger, daredevil brother and praying that he was safe.

Mitchell shook his head. “John and Colton are in town, and I think the rest of the hands are accounted for.”

“Make sure,” the chief insisted. Snapping the bullhorn over his mouth again, he barked, “Okay, we’ve got four people trapped inside, possibly more. Upstairs and down. Get ’em out!” He glanced back at Tessa and must have read the dread on her face. “Get her out of here,” he said to Mitchell. “There’s nothing she can do.”

“I’m not leaving,” she insisted.

“Come on, Tess—”

“Not when Denver and Dad are in there. No way!” She started forward and tripped over a hose.

“You’re in the way, lady,” the fire chief said.

“Hey, Chief! We got one!” One of the firemen was dragging a coughing, soot-streaked man from